Stephaniesid celebrates first live release

Thursday

Feb 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Stephanie Morgan isn't the type of musician who listens to her own performances.

By JASON GILMERFor the Herald-Journal

Stephanie Morgan isn't the type of musician who listens to her own performances.“I hate listening to recordings of live shows. There was no way I was going to sit down and say, ‘Hey, let's hear what we sounded like at our last show,' ” she said. “I'd find stuff I didn't like. I'd rather move on because that show is over.”The Stephaniesid frontwoman made an exception recently, and it has led to a new recording.Her husband and bandmate Chuck Lichtenberger said a copy of the band's November show at the Wee Bit Louder Fest at Asheville's Highland Brewing Co. sounded really good mixed. So, she sat down to listen, too.The group liked the mix, done by local engineer J. Ferris, and the set list enough to put it out as the band's first live recording. Members will celebrate the release of “They Won't Know What to Do With Us” with a 10 p.m. show Saturday at the Asheville Music Hall.“We didn't make a decision to do a live album and then do it,” Morgan said. “(The engineer) gave it to us afterward, and it was mixed and we listened to it afterward and it sounded great, so we decided to release it.”It is the indie pop band's fifth full-length album release since it was formed in 2001. Musicians on the album include Morgan (guitar, vocals), Lichtenberger (keyboard, bass pedals), Tim Haney (drums), Jacob Rodriguez (saxophone, effects, backing vocals), Justin Ray (trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals) and Caleb McMahon (trombone).Along with some fan favorites, two new tracks and a few songs with extended sections or changes in chord progression, the group added member interviews to the album. Morgan sat on her couch and talked with each member one on one.“We didn't know it was going on the album,” Lichtenberger said. “Maybe if I had known that, it would have been harder than it was to begin with. It's hard to be open and honest. I think Stephanie did a good job of pulling things out of us.”Morgan sees the interviews as a way for fans to get to know the musicians beyond the stage. She even turned the microphone on herself.

“The whole thing behind Stephaniesid is that it allows for the soft tissue inside of us to break through the armor and see the light of day,” Morgan said. “We reveal some things, and it felt right to do that.”The music, though, will be the showcase on the album.Since the band's inception, the music, Lichtenberger said, has gotten a bit heavier.Hearing the recording of the live show has given the group an insight into its studio time. It can sometimes be hard for the group to get the live sound to transfer into the studio.“I learned a lot from this –– that we can let ourselves go a little more in the studio,” Morgan said. “We haven't seen ourselves live and didn't know there was such a chasm between our live music and our studio music.”“It should help us as we do in to make our next studio album,” Lichtenberger said.